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Prof. Watanabe's office at HKUST overlooking Clear Water Bay

Welcome

Welcome to the Watanabe Group at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).

This site is also available in 日本語 (Japanese) and 中文 (Chinese).

We are a theoretical condensed matter physics group led by Prof. Haruki Watanabe, based jointly in the Department of Physics and the HKUST Jockey Club Institute for Advanced Study. Our research aims to uncover universal properties of quantum many-body systems from a symmetry perspective.

The group was originally founded in February 2016 at the University of Tokyo and relocated to HKUST in March 2026.

Research

Our current research spans five interconnected areas:

  • Spontaneous symmetry breaking and Nambu–Goldstone bosons — counting rules in nonrelativistic systems, and the (im)possibility of time crystals.
  • Topological phases and symmetry indicators — diagnosing band topology in all 230 (and 1651 magnetic) space groups, including topological superconductors.
  • Nonlinear electromagnetic responses in superconductors — gauge-invariant theory and rigorous sum rules.
  • Frustration-free quantum many-body systems — rigorous bounds on dynamical critical exponents and finite-size gaps.
  • Spin ice and water-ice phases — topology of pyrochlore spin ice and quantum-many-body perspectives on high-pressure ice.

Read more about our research →

News & Highlights

  • March 2026 — Rintaro Masaoka received the Dean's Award from the Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo.
  • March 2026 — The group relocated from the University of Tokyo to HKUST.
  • March 2026 — Seishiro Ono received the Young Scientist Award of the Physical Society of Japan (Division 4).
  • September 2025 — Prof. Watanabe was awarded the Particle Physics Medal (Japan Particle and Nuclear Theory Forum).
  • September 2025 — Seishiro Ono was appointed Assistant Professor at the Institute for Solid State Physics, the University of Tokyo.
  • May 2025 — Our paper establishing a rigorous lower bound on the dynamical critical exponent in frustration-free systems appeared in Phys. Rev. X 15, 041050 (R. Masaoka, T. Soejima, H. Watanabe).
  • March 2025 — Sena Watanabe received the Shoji Tanaka Prize (Outstanding Master's Thesis Award) from the Department of Applied Physics, University of Tokyo.
  • October 2024 — Our paper on the spontaneous breaking of continuous U(1) symmetry at zero temperature in one dimension appeared in Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 176001 and was selected as an Editors' Suggestion.
  • April 2024 — Prof. Watanabe received the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Japan (Young Scientists' Prize).
  • March 2024 — Prof. Watanabe received the Faculty of Engineering Best Teaching Award at the University of Tokyo.
  • March 2023 — Seishiro Ono received the Dean's Award from the Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo.
  • September 2022 — Prof. Watanabe received the New Horizons in Physics Prize from the Breakthrough Prize Foundation.

Looking for Graduate Students

We are actively recruiting PhD and MPhil students interested in theoretical condensed matter physics. All admitted postgraduate students at HKUST receive a stipend; details are available on the HKUST Postgraduate Admissions page.

Prospective students are warmly encouraged to contact Prof. Watanabe at hwatanabe@ust.hk.